Our Experience: “The gay cancer.”

“ HIV swept across America.” “Our government did nothing.”    In this deeply personal conversation, The Old Gays reflect on the HIV/AIDS crisis and the community that rose to face it. Robert and Mick, both living with HIV, open up about receiving their diagnoses and the stigmas they have endured. They also share how love and resilience carried them, and countless others, through various degrees of grief, connection, and acceptance.   “I think every gay person looked at that obituary column to see who had died. And that column grew until it was a whole page in the newspaper.”    From the heartbreak of friends lost to the power of protest, from daily meds to the healing magic of the desert, this episode honors the full weight of the epidemic and the generation it transformed.    “If you can learn to harness the energy of your mind, you can deal with your body in physical ways that are astonishing.”   This one’s emotional, yes, but also full of humor, tenderness, and the kind of hard-earned wisdom that only The Old Gays can provide. Come for the vulnerability and honesty, stay for the giant condom on Jesse Helms’ house.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.